Margaret Harrison (born Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, 1940) is an English feminist and artist whose work over the past decade has dealt with different media and a range of subject matter which has established her as a leading artist in Britain.
Harrison studied at the Carlisle College of Art from 1957–61; the Royal Academy Schools, London England, from 1961–64; and graduated from the Perugia Fine Arts Academy, Italy, in 1965.
She founded the London Women's Liberation Art Group in 1970. A 1971 exhibition of her work that was closed by the police included a piece depicting Hugh Heffner as a naked Bunny girl.[1] Her work "Beautiful Ugly Violence"[2] was described as "a field day of juxtapositions, as the bright and almost cheery colors of her paintings counter the often subdued and sometimes deadly topic: the various means of committing violence against women."[3]
Harrison continues to work in both the United States and England and has exhibited in America, Switzerland, and Great Britain. Her work has been shown in the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Tate Modern.[1] She was a Senior Research Professor and Director of the Social and Environmental Art Research Centre.
Her latest work (Spring 2011) will be exhibited at the PayneShurvell gallery in East London. It is entitiled 'I am a Fantasy' and runs from 15 April to 21 May. The show is curated by Beverley Knowles.